You Never Know
by AccioErised
Summary: They were just kids, what did they know about life. Never in their innocent, young minds could they imagine the whirpool of happiness, sorrow and regret that life would one day push them into.
1. Balloon

**Hi guys! I've decided to write a new story! It's not a one-shot and will definitely have more chapters in the future.**

**This story was inspired by Shiroi Hoshi's 'Time Is Love'. Enjoy, and do review! :)**

**I don't own Naruto!**

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**Chapter 1**

"Her hair is so pretty, un!" He gasped to his best friend, Sasori.

Deidara was transfixed by the sight of wavy, pink locks cascading down the back of a little girl who was sitting by a cherry blossom tree alone. The cool wind caressed her face and her long fringe danced along with the breeze, fluttering across her face. She brushed them away impatiently with her tiny hand. Emerald eyes scanned the playground and her soft, plump lips formed themselves into a pout when her aunt was nowhere to be seen. Deciding to shift herself into a more comfortable position, she moved and sat down on a tree root protruding out of the ground. Placing her elbows on her knees, she cupped her chubby cheeks in her hands and let out a soft sigh.

From time to time, she would blow her fringe out of her eyes and glance up at the playground half-heartedly. She wasn't expecting her aunt to arrive anytime soon. The sky was getting darker and parents were bringing their sons and daughters home for dinner. Soon the area would be deserted. She didn't wail or whimper like other children her age normally would, she simply waited.

Deidara's mother took his hand in her own and tugged gently. Reluctantly, he tore his eyes away from the uniquely coloured hair. He scrambled to keep up with his mother after saying bye to Sasori.

He wondered if he would see the girl with the pink locks again. Thinking hard, Deidara searched his memories for any sign that she went to the playground regularly. He remembered seeing her wandering around the sandboxes with a blonde girl. Although he hadn't spotted her around every day, he remembered her being there often enough to assure him that she would be there again in a few days' time. Satisfied and a tad pleased with his cleverness, Deidara made up his mind that he would go to the playground every day from then on until he saw her again.

For the next three days Deidara spotted no sign of her, but on the fourth he caught a glimpse of her pink locks billowing behind her in the wind as she swung up and down a swing. However, this time she was not alone. Beside her was another girl who had a short crop of dark blue hair. He noticed her unique pale eyes and recognized her immediately. She was Hyuga Hinata, cousin of the well-known Hyuga Neji.

Just then, Sasori came running towards him with a green balloon, "Deidara!" He shouted halfway across the sandpit, "They're giving away free balloons, FOR FREE!"

Glancing up at the pinked haired girl, Deidara saw that she was still swinging hadn't the simplest idea about the free balloons. Looking in the direction that Sasori had come from, he could already see a few children crowding around a friendly looking bloke holding a bunch of balloons. He had a brainwave and started off for the balloon man at top speed.

"Which balloon would you like, little boy? I have a nice red one right here." The balloon man asked cheerfully and at the same time handed out a few balloons to random hands that were trying to snatch a balloon for themselves.

"I want the pink one, please?" Deidara requested politely, realising about a second too late that he had made himself sound extremely girly.

"You sure," he chuckled, unable to hide his bemusement by the boy's choice of colour. Nevertheless the man picked a pale pink balloon from his collection and placed the string into Deidara's waiting hand immediately, "Alright here you go."

"Thank you," Deidara had not missed the look the man had given him and he embarrassedly insisted, "It's not for me, un!"

The balloon man simply grinned. Watching him out of the corner of his eye, he saw Deidara run over to the swing-set towards a little girl with pink hair. Shaking his head and sighing at the innocence young children always seemed to possess, he continued giving out balloons and silently wished Deidara the best of luck.

"This balloon is for you, un! See, it matches your hair!" Deidara exclaimed in a breath. Panting slightly, he thrust the balloon string into the palm of a bewildered little girl.

Sakura looked at the strange boy. He looked about her age, maybe a year older. He had long bright blonde hair that reached just below his shoulders and he had tied part of it up into a high ponytail. His fringe was too long and covered one of his eyes.

"Your hair looks like a girl's." Sakura observed out loud without thinking, making Hinata beside her giggle uncontrollably and poor Deidara's cheeks to flush beet red.

"I like it, it looks really soft. Can I touch it?" She said curiously, earning a look of surprise from Hinata. Deidara nodded nervously, not knowing what to expect as he turned his back to face her. At least she hadn't been mean to him about looking like a girl.

"Hinata, it's so soft! I think it's softer than Ino's!" He heard Sakura squeal to her friend.

"H-his hair d-does look a little like h-her's." Hinata observed and stuttered.

"You're right!" Sakura exclaimed excitedly and laughed at the uncanny resemblance Deidara's and Ino's hair had.

The feeling of fingers running through his hair had stopped and he was feeling a bit uncomfortable standing with his back faced to two girls. Deidara turned himself around and introduced himself nervously, "My name is Deidara, un."

"I'm Sakura," the girl with pink locks replied confidently.

"Hinata," her pearly eyes shone and her lips curved into a tiny smile.

Deidara stood in front of his two new friends rocking on his heels. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Sasori was sitting in the sandpit waiting patiently for Deidara to return. Before Sakura could ask if he's like to play with them, Deidara mumbled a "see you around" and dashed off to where Sasori was waiting for him.

"Who's pinky?" Sasori asked when Deidara was within earshot. Sasori never liked the process of making friends and had remained behind in the sandpit.

"Her name's Sakura."

Deidara was five going on six when he first interacted with Sakura.


	2. Fire truck

**New chapter, yay! C****ompletely ignored studying for my literature paper last night to write this. My essays were so crap today and I think I'm gonna fail :( SIGH!**

**So I hope my sacrifice was worth it and you guys enjoy this! ****I'd love it if some of you reviewed too :)**

**I don't own Naruto.**

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**Chapter 2**

It was lunch break for the first graders. Even though it was raining heavily, nobody seemed to mind that they had to be cooped up in a room instead of running about the small field outside. In fact, the school had a room that was just as good as any playground, if not better. It was a huge room with countless of toys and books to entertain the younger students on days like this. In the mind of any seven year old that had been stuck in a classroom doing mental sums for the past three hours, nothing could beat that!

Ino dragged Sakura over to the little shelf of books. Together, they began pouring over picture books of princesses and knights in shining armour. Deidara was just on the opposite side of the room with a kid who looked like his skin had an unhealthy tinge of blue to it.

It was out of pure coincidence that they had been enrolled in the same elementary school. What was even more surprising was that they were in the same class. Sakura had always thought that Deidara was older than her ever since their first meeting.

"Oi Deidara!" Kisame, the blur skinned kid squeaked, "It's my turn to be the bad guy today!"

"Yeah, evil will not go unpunished, un!" Deidara yelled before striking his superhero pose cheekily.

While scanning the room for something evil to do, Kisame spotted Sakura and Ino quietly sitting reading in a corner. An idea hit him and he made his way towards them.

"Ooh, I've kidnapped them!" Kisame taunted playfully, standing in front of his new, very bewildered victims: Sakura and Ino.

Ino however, caught on fast and joined in, "help! Help! Save us," she played along and caught Sakura's attention. Rolling her eyes, Sakura tried to focus on reading her book. She really wasn't interested in being a damsel in distress at the moment. Deidara who was oblivious to the fact that Sakura wanted to be left alone, grinned and began to advance towards Kisame with a toy sword in his right hand and a make believe shield in his left.

"You'll never get them! I've locked them in a tower." Kisame said in his best threatening voice and cackled for added effect. Standing in front of the two girls, he made a barrier with his arms as if successfully trapping them up in a prison cell. He was really getting into the whole villain thing.

"I've found a way out. Hurry up!" Ino whispered dramatically to Sakura and pulled her from the comfortable spot.

Both of them slid past an unsuspecting Kisame who wasn't quite quick enough to prevent them from running away. Ino ran around the room, pulling a slightly irritated but amused Sakura along with her. Kisame was hot on their heels, and howling like it was the end of the world just because his prisoners had escaped.

As he got closer to the escaping pair, he reached out and grabbed wildly. To everyone's surprise, he caught hold of Sakura's little wrist. A game of tug-of-war commenced between Kisame and Ino, with Sakura being the rope of course. Deidara watched on for a while, confused as to what he should do. Finally making up his mind, he rushed towards them in hopes of rescuing Ino and Sakura.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ino saw Deidara coming for them. She knew the game would end too quickly if Deidara rescued them at that moment. A sly smile grazed her lips as she pretended that she couldn't hold on to Sakura any longer. With a shriek of exaggerated terror, Ino let go of Sakura's arm. Thus allowing Sakura to be pulled out of her grasp and lugged back to the chair by a victorious Kisame.

Poor Sakura had been yanked all over the place that day. Deciding that she would to play along after all, Sakura cried out pitifully for help from where she was being held captive.

"Let her go, un! If not I'll stab you." Deidara ordered fiercely and made jabbing motions with his weapon. Bursts of laughter erupted from everybody when he accidentally poked Kisame in the stomach with the tip of his sword.

"You shouldn't have done that," Kisame waved his arms around pretending to be a magician. He spun himself around a few times for good measure before pointing to Sakura. "Zap! Now her shirt's on fire!"

"Deidara," Ino cried out from a corner, coating her words with desperation. "Quick, save her!"

"I'll save you, Sakura!" Deidara dropped his sword and ran to where his backpack lay. Unzipping it, he grabbed his toy fire truck that he had brought to school for show-and-tell. He ran back to where Sakura was imprisoned, at the same time unwinding the miniature hose that was attached to the back of his truck.

"Woosh," he made sound effects as he sprayed pretend water from the hose onto Sakura to extinguish the pretend fire that had caught on her shirt. All of a sudden, his expression became serious.

"Now you have to stop, drop and roll, un." He commanded and pointed to the floor.

"What for" Sakura asked from behind Kisame and cocked her head to the side in confusion. "The fire's already gone."

"No, no, un! What if the fire comes back," Deidara's eyes widened and his tone took on such a frantic edge that Sakura almost believed he was really panicking. He repeated himself, "You HAVE to 'stop, drop and roll', un!"

Sakura didn't like to be ordered around, even if it was by someone who had saved her from burning to death. Deidara was no exception.

"No," she crossed her arms and giggled at the strained expression on her hero's face. "The fire's gone. I don't have to 'stop, drop and roll'." Sakura put emphasis on the 'have' just like how Deidara did a while ago. She stuck her tongue out at him and saw his eye narrow towards her in irritation.

"Zap! I've set you on fire again!" Kisame decided to cut in.

"I told you, I told you! See, the fire came back!" Deidara pointed at Sakura and laughed, forgetting for a moment that he was supposed to be playing the good guy.

He snapped back into character. After multiple times of feeling around his waist, he finally came to the realisation that he had thrown it away in the heat of the moment when he was getting his fire truck. He didn't miss the laughter from Sakura, Ino and Kisame when they saw him fumbling.

Scowling, he folded his arms and said to Sakura who was still waiting patiently to be rescued, "fine, un. Laugh at me. I won't save you anymore!" Sakura was rendered was speechless.

"No! You can't do that," Ino screamed from her corner in indignation, "if you don't save her, she'll die and -"

"Just kidding, un!" Deidara yelled at the top of his voice to cut Ino off and laughed.

Uttering what sounded like a battle cry, he threw his fire truck aside and ran straight for Kisame. He pretended to attack Kisame Kung Fu style with moves he had seen on television back home. Deidara threw one final punch across his face and the villain slumped to the ground in defeat. Stepping over him, Deidara didn't forget to extinguish the remaining imaginary flames on Sakura's blouse.

"Now you have to kiss him, Sakura!" Ino skipped over to Sakura and clapped her hands happily.

"Ew, that's gross," Sakura exclaimed in disgust and took two steps away from Deidara. "Why do I have to?"

"Cause he saved you Sakura!" A malicious bout of laughter escaped Ino and her smirk widened, "that's how girls on fire thank their saviour!"

"It's alright, un" Deidara muttered, his chubby cheeks were turning slightly pink as blood rushed into his face. "I don't really want to be kissed."

"Kiss, kiss, kiss," Ino started chanting and Kisame joined in soon after. To both Deidara's and Sakura's relief, the school bell sounded signalling the start of afternoon classes. They scrambled to gather their things and quickly made their way back to class. Iruka sensei didn't like it when they were late.

"Here, un. In case you ever catch on fire again, this'll save you." Deidara held out his red fire truck to Sakura as they walked back to the classroom. "You never 'stop, drop, and roll', un. And I won't always be there to save you again."


End file.
